


Yet Nor The Lays Of Birds

by Katherine



Category: The Lion King (2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always Female, Hornbills, Insects, Nesting, Zazu is female
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-11-09 05:10:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20848046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katherine/pseuds/Katherine
Summary: Foraging for bugs was still kind of fun, Simba found, although sometimes felt awkward, too, since Simba was a grown lion and one who was living in his own kingdom. He was supposed to prefer his pride's many times bigger prey for his menu. And, of course, the foraging places were pretty different, in savanna instead of jungle. Zazu knew the land, and turned out to be surprisingly good company.





	Yet Nor The Lays Of Birds

Foraging for bugs was still kind of fun, Simba found, although sometimes felt awkward, too, since Simba was a grown lion and one who was living in his own kingdom. He was supposed to prefer his pride's many times bigger prey for his menu. And, of course, the foraging places were pretty different, in savanna instead of jungle.

Zazu knew the land, and turned out to be surprisingly good company when she was in a similar mood for tiny snacks. This was maybe the third time that she and Simba had gone looking for bugs together, and she was showing him a new place.

Zazu fluttered around a tree excitedly. "Now, sire, if I might suggest that you bring some of these back to your queen." She pointed her beak at a few crunchy-looking, greyish, and honestly unappetizing small things on the ground.

Simba's dubiousness about that plan must have shown on his face. Over the months, he had tried offering some choice bugs to Nala, wanting to share something of his jungle childhood with her. But she hadn't developed a taste for them. Not even recently, when pregnancy could, so his mother assured him in whispers, results in swings and strangeness of appetite.

"Since she is expecting," Zazu explained in a dramatic whisper. Then, once she crunched one of the things down, "There's nothing like weathered millipede for growing strong bones. Strong eggshells, too, of course, but you lions don't make those... Soft business, this 'birthing'."

Without the faintest idea of how to reply to that, Simba pretended to be very interested in a branch he turned over, although it probably hadn't been on the ground long enough to get any interesting snacks underneath.

Zazu gave him a little silence before hopping into view, bowing, and then saying, "I shall soon be needing a leave of absence, sire." She sounded particularly formal. "It's time to raise up chicks, we agree." Simba had a moment of sheer confusion, imagining himself as part of that we. Had he agreed on that timing during some report that he wasn't properly listening to? Almost as quickly, he realised that Zazu must have a mate.

"I didn't know you were married," Simba said carefully. Hornbills might be secretive about their relationships with one another, the way that shrews were. Although that might be not so much keeping secrets as hiding squabbles, more politely than usual. The shrews Simba had got to know during his life in the jungle had been neither peaceful nor very sociable.

"That came about after you were—" Zazu broke off in a bout of preening. As a cat who also washed when embarrassed, Simba didn't press for an end to the statement. He could think of several. Presumed dead. Run away. Singing in the jungle when he should have been in his home kingdom. He didn't want to dwell on all of that, since he was home now and doing his best to act as a responsible king. Not to mention soon to be a father. Simba changed the subject by asking about Zazu's plans for a nest.

A nesting hornbill, so Simba found out, walled herself in to a hollow with mud and (from Zazu's delicate phrasing) her own dirt. Not only until she had laid the eggs, but the whole time until the chicks grew big enough to leave. She relied on her mate bringing her food, inserted into a small window.

"That's ... very different," Simba said, proud of himself for finding a diplomatic phrase. If he were still a cub, or the carefree young lion he had been with Timon and Pumbaa, he might have commented rudely.

Zazu seemed to guess what was going through his mind, however. An inconvenient side-effect of having a long-lived retainer who was familiar with lions.

"I said soft, earlier, but I might note that animal birth is rather messy, I believe," she said, somewhat coolly. Then, with what took Simba a breath to recognise as wistfulness, "I've been told the contained time with one's eggs is very peaceful."

Simba repeated, "Peaceful." They could all do with some of that. Despite the pressing responsibilities of being the king, he was finding it in the Pride Lands. Zazu deserved to have a stretch of peace herself. He should ask more about the timing; maybe Zazu's chicks could play with his and Nala's cubs.

For the moment, he needed to start considering who could fill in for Zazu while she was on leave. Maybe one of the guinea fowl who had moved from the jungle would take on flying more than they usually liked to. Anyway, there was a small pile of dry millipedes to take back to Nala. That might be helped if Zazu explained the gift to her, along with Zazu's news.


End file.
